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Page 1
Prototyping • What prototyping is
• The benefits of prototyping
• Low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes,
and the advantages of each
• How to build paper prototypes (storyboards)
Why Prototype? • Traditional software development:
you can’t test until you implement
• Implementation is expensive
• Result: any design errors are built in to the first thing you can test, and it is very expensive to make changes
• Result: design errors, unless they are really bad, are left in the product (as “features”)
Breaking this implementation paradox
• Build a prototype of the basic functionality, especially the interface
• Test the prototype, which will uncover design errors
• Correct the errors
• Repeat until you have a clean design
• Prototyping is • a major tool for improving usability • Heavily used in industry
The views of the stakeholders • Software designers
may not adequately understand prototyping
• HCI practitioners may not adequately understand implementation
• The two groups need to talk to each other early, and prototyping facilitates communication
Page 2
Two types of prototypes
• Evolutionary: the prototype eventually becomes the product
• Revolutionary, or throwaway: the prototype is used to get the specs right, then discarded!!
Horizontal prototype: broad but only top-level
Vertical prototype: deep, but only some functions
Benefits of prototyping • Can be used to test every detail of the final product
before the product is built (E.g. MoS testing rooms)
• Results in higher user satisfaction
• Users are better at evaluating an existing (vs described) system
• It brings the users into the process early
Disadvantages • Users may be unfamiliar with the technique.
• Management may think that the project is nearly finished
if the prototype is “too good,” or that the prototype can be converted into the final product.
Page 3
The right way: use low-fidelity prototypes
• Inexpensive in materials cost, people time, and schedule time
• No risk of being mistaken for the final product
• Simple and fast to repeat as lessons are learned
• When interface testing of the prototype is complete, implementation can proceed with confidence
• Navigation visual display of paths
• Interactivity
all on paper and words • Screen design
basic layout, basic color • Rough sketches
for key frames, menus, etc.
Storyboards: paper-based prototypes
a “hardware” tool to visualize your project:
Storyboarding is about conceptual thinking, not art.
Organization on a single snapshot Shows screens, files, concepts, navigation
Screen-level detail makes implementation easy and unambiguous